ICESat-2 Scientists to Investigate Icy Mysteries

06 September 2018

Soon after NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2, or ICESat-2, launches on 15 Sept. from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, it will start collecting a terabyte of data a day to monitor the height of Earth's surface below. The mission will measure the amount of sea ice floating above the ocean surface to within an inch. It will measure annual changes across ice sheets to within the width of a pencil.

Scientists with the ICESat-2 mission are already thinking beyond these key surface height measurements to how they will use those data to investigate Earth's frozen reaches. Seven researchers on the ICESat-2 science definition team described what they are most excited to study once the mission's data are flowing.